Democratic Memory Actions Regarding the Pasaje Begoña as a “Spanish Stonewall”

Founding Myth, Francoist Censorships and Recent Patrimonialisation (1971–2023)

Abstract

This article will analyse the construction of the “Spanish Stonewall” category in relation to the Pasaje Begoña, following the police raid which took place there on 24 June 1971. Building on the process of mythologising the Stonewall riots as the genesis of contemporary LGBTIAQ+ activism, this study will examine how this event has functioned as a genealogical model for gender and sexual dissidence at a transnational level. Through a historical-cultural approach based on a review of relevant literature, documentary analysis and a qualitative interview with Javier Cuevas del Barrio, a specialist in the subject matter of this research, the late Francoist context in which the 1971 Pasaje Begoña incident took place will be reconstructed, as well as its subsequent process of heritage recognition in Spain’s post-fascist era. The study will demonstrate that the analogy between Torremolinos and New York does not stem from a structural equivalence between the two episodes –which were marked by distinct sociopolitical contexts and had divergent consequences in each case– but rather from a contemporary exercise of democratic memory which, in retrospect, has sought to inscribe the Pasaje Begoña within an already recognised and legitimised global genealogy.